The present invention relates to the construction of stringed instruments, in particular amplified guitars and basses.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a system for fixing the neck to the body of the instrument.
Traditional, so-called solid-body instruments, in particular electric guitars and basses, adopt a system for fixing the neck to the body which uses self-tapping screws and, in most cases, a metal plate positioned underneath the foot of the body opposite the fixing screws. The latter, which are normally four in number, pass through the holes in the metal plate and the foot forming part of the body; they then engage inside the bottom end of the neck, fixing the latter to the body in the seating provided by means of milling.
This system has various drawbacks. The threading in the wood material is often delicate and this results in a limited number of possible maintenance operations involving disassembly and the corresponding overhaul of the neck and body, with the need for adjustment of the position, any varnishing and touch-up work, correction of the relative inclination of the neck and body and other stringed-instrument repair operations. The bonding force between neck and body is directly dependent upon the quality of the woods used in addition to the cross-section of the screws.
This type of construction requires the presence of a strong, but awkward fixing foot which is retained on the body of the instrument. The foot constitutes a further problem, in particular for the musician, who often has difficulty in gaining access to the highest positions on the fingerboard, forcing him to/her to assume unnatural and tiring positions and making it somewhat difficult to play certain sequences of notes at high speed or in particular positions.
An alternative is provided by instruments having the neck mounted in a fixed manner on the body, by means of bonding or a single-body construction. This solution, however, involves technical problems, such as the impossibility of re-positioning the neck should it, with the passing of time, undergo slight variations or adjustments in position, and a timbre--i.e. a response to the vibration frequencies of the instrument--which is different from that of an instrument with a screwed body and neck.